Chemical Guide

OTTAWA — The federal government is making good on a promise to ban a toxic chemical additive in soft plastic toys and other children’s products.

The new regulations, to be implemented in June, take aim at six phthalates, a family a chemicals known to cause reproductive harm and commonly used to make vinyl plastic soft and flexible. The additive will no longer be permitted to be used in a slew of items that are designed or are likely to be put in the mouths of children under four. These include bath toys, squeeze or inflatable toys, teethers, rattles and vinyl bibs.

Additionally, the use of three of the six phthalates, known as DEEP, DBP and BBP, will be restricted in all children’s toys and childcare items, even if designed for and used by older kids.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who is slated to make the official announcement Tuesday, is taking the step after Health Canada’s own market survey in 2008 found the widespread presence of phthalates in soft plastic toys and other items for young children to help with feeding, sleeping or relaxation and made out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Health Canada found the widespread presence of phthalates in these children’s items, despite a decade-long voluntary ban in North America.

According to the test results released to Postmedia News under access-to-information legislation, three-quarters (54 of 72) of soft plastic toys and other items for young children contained up to 39.9 per cent by weight of PVC. Health Canada conducted the tests to “understand what manufacturers are using instead of phthalates,” according to an internal summary of the test results.

The Canadian ban, under consultation since June 2009, comes more than a decade after the European Union restricted the allowable concentrations of phthalates in children’s products to 0.1 per cent. Following the European ban in 1999, a similar ban in the United States came into effect in 2009.

Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence Canada and co-author of Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects our Health, said the pending ban in Canada is “good news — and important for Canadian consumers, and particularly children, to receive the same level of protection from this hormone-disrupting chemical that Europeans and Americans have long enjoyed.”

As it is in lead, the mere presence of phthalates in the soft vinyl is not dangerous, so touching soft vinyl does not constitute a health risk. Rather, it is the amount of phthalates that can leach out of the soft vinyl and migrate into the body that can be harmful.

Phthalates are not chemically bound to the plastic toys to which they’re added, so leaching occurs when young children mouth or suck on items such as rubber ducks and other bath toys, and migrates into the body through saliva.

Low-level exposure to these endocrine-disrupting chemicals blocks production of the male sex hormone testosterone.

Some toy manufacturers, including Hasbro and Mattel Inc., stopped using phthalates in their toy lines after the law changed in Europe. And retail giants such as Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Sears Canada announced their shelves would no longer be stocked with toys containing phthalates, beginning in 2009.

When it comes to older soft vinyl toys, Health Canada is advising parents and caregivers to remove products from the child’s environment if they observe the child sucking or chewing on them for extended periods.

Source: vancouversun.com